ABSTRACT
David Burston opens the book with a helpful brief introduction for the uninitiated on Jungian psychology and ideas. This chapter describes how depth sport psychology distinguishes itself, and what the reader can expect from this method of science and knowledge. Complimentary research methodologies such as phenomenology and hermeneutics are described, accompanying Burston’s unique insight into the value of heuristic methodology when working with elite soccer players and athletes. As with psychotherapy, the depth traditions value our past, and this first chapter describes our upbringings as a species. Anthropological evidence reveals it was a tough childhood.
This chapter charts how our search for knowledge has shaped our psychology as a species. Our ancestors were universally animists, seeing life and spirit in everything. Burston explores the intimate relationship animals have to the psyche and sport; the ‘knowledge’ and valuable animal spirit was embodied for our ancestors by the Shaman, who worked with hunters. Authors such as Richard Leakey and Stan Grof suggest hunting improved when hunters identified with the spirit of the animals they pursued. This chapter accounts for how that can be, closing with an exploration of the opposite of animism – scientism – and the influences of data in the modern age.
